Regulon.AI — CA-SB-7 · CA SB 7 (Workplace ADS)

2024-12-02 introduced Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print.

2025-01-29 committee referral Referred to Com. on RLS.

2025-03-06 committee referral From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on RLS.

2025-03-19 committee referral Re-referred to Coms. on L., P.E. & R. and JUD.

2025-04-09 committee referral From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on JUD. (Ayes 4. Noes 1. Page 739.) (April 9). Re-referred to Com. on JUD.

2025-04-30 committee passage From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 11. Noes 2. Page 937.) (April 29).

2025-05-01 committee referral Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

2025-05-23 committee passage From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 5. Noes 1. Page 1187.) (May 23).

2025-05-23 chamber passage Read second time. Ordered to third reading.

2025-06-09 committee referral Referred to Coms. on L. & E., P. & C.P., and JUD.

2025-06-19 committee referral From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on L. & E.

2025-06-26 committee referral From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on P. & C.P. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) (June 25). Re-referred to Com. on P. & C.P.

2025-07-09 committee referral From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on P. & C.P.

2025-07-17 committee referral From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 9. Noes 4.) (July 16). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

2025-08-29 committee passage From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 10. Noes 4.) (August 29).

2025-09-02 amendment Read second time and amended. Ordered to second reading.

2025-09-03 chamber passage Read second time. Ordered to third reading.

2025-09-05 amendment Read third time and amended.

2025-09-05 chamber passage Ordered to third reading.

2025-09-12 chamber passage Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 28. Noes 9. Page 2988.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling.

2025-09-23 chamber passage Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 2 p.m.

2025-10-13 executive action Vetoed by the Governor.

Summary

Regulates employers' use of automated decision systems (ADS) in employment-related decisions in California. Requires pre-use written notice to workers before deploying an ADS for non-hiring employment decisions, and notice to job applicants when an ADS is used in hiring. Prohibits employers from relying solely on an ADS for discipline, termination, or deactivation decisions and requires human review when ADS output is primarily relied upon. Restricts ADS use for inferring protected status, profiling workers for exercising legal rights, and using customer ratings as the sole or primary input. Grants workers a data access right to obtain their own data used by an ADS. Enforced by the Labor Commissioner and public prosecutors — no private right of action. Includes a collective bargaining agreement exemption and a federal government contractor carve-out. The bill passed the legislature but was vetoed.

Enforcement & Penalties

Enforcement Authority

The Labor Commissioner enforces this part, including investigating alleged violations, ordering temporary relief, issuing citations, and filing civil actions under Labor Code §§ 98.3, 98.7, 98.74, or 1197.1. Alternatively, a public prosecutor may bring a civil action pursuant to Labor Code Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 180) of Division 1. No private right of action is created; enforcement is limited to the Labor Commissioner and public prosecutors.

Penalties

Civil penalty of $500 per violation. In civil actions brought by the Labor Commissioner or a public prosecutor, the petitioner may seek appropriate temporary or preliminary injunctive relief, punitive damages, and reasonable attorney's fees and costs.

Who Is Covered

"Employer" means any person who directly or indirectly, or through an agent or any other person, employs or exercises control over the wages, benefits, other compensation, hours, working conditions, access to work or job opportunities, or other terms or conditions of employment, of any worker. This shall include all branches of state government, or the several counties, cities and counties, and municipalities thereof, or any other political subdivision of the state, or a school district, or any special district, or any authority, commission, or board or any other agency or instrumentality thereof.

"Employer" includes a labor contractor of a person defined as an employer under paragraph (1).

What Is Covered

"Automated decision system" or "ADS" means any computational process derived from machine learning, statistical modeling, data analytics, or artificial intelligence that issues simplified output, including a score, classification, or recommendation, that is used to assist or replace human discretionary decisionmaking and materially impacts natural persons. An automated decision system does not include a spam email filter, firewall, antivirus software, identity and access management tools, calculator, database, dataset, or other compilation of data.

Compliance Obligations 12 obligations · click obligation ID to open requirement page

H-01 Human Oversight of Automated Decisions · H-01.3 · Deployer · EmploymentAutomated Decisionmaking

Lab. Code § 1522(a)-(c), (e)

Plain Language

Employers must provide a written pre-use notice to workers (or their authorized representatives) before deploying an ADS for non-hiring employment-related decisions. The notice must be issued at least 30 days before first deployment, by April 1, 2026 for systems already in use, and within 30 days for new hires. The notice must be plain-language, stand-alone, in the worker's routine communication language, and must describe the types of affected decisions, data categories and sources, key parameters that disproportionately affect output, the ADS vendor, any quotas, and the worker's data access and correction rights. Employers must also maintain an updated list of all ADS currently in use.

Statutory Text

(a) An employer shall provide a written notice that an ADS, for the purpose of making employment-related decisions, not including hiring, is in use at the workplace to a worker who will foreseeably be directly affected by the ADS, or their authorized representative, according to the following: (1) At least 30 days before an ADS is first deployed by the employer. (2) If the employer is using an ADS to assist in making employment-related decisions at the time this title takes effect, no later than April 1, 2026. (3) To a new worker within 30 days of hiring the worker. (b) An employer shall maintain an updated list of all ADS currently in use. (c) A written notice required by this section shall be all of the following: (1) Written in plain language as a separate, stand-alone communication. (2) In the language in which routine communications and other information are provided to workers. (3) Provided via a simple and easy-to-use method, including, but not limited to, an email, hyperlink, or other written format. (e) A notice issued pursuant to subdivision (a) shall contain the following information: (1) The type of employment-related decisions potentially affected by the ADS. (2) A general description of the categories of worker input data the ADS will use, the sources of worker input data, and how worker input data will be collected. (3) Any key parameters known to disproportionately affect the output of the ADS. (4) The individuals, vendors, or entities that created the ADS. (5) If applicable, a description of each quota set or measured by an ADS to which the worker is subject, including the quantified number of tasks to be performed or products to be produced, and any potential adverse employment action that could result from failure to meet the quota, as well as whether those quotas are subject to change and if any notice is given of changes in quotas. (6) A description of the worker's right to access and correct the worker's data used by the ADS. (7) That the employer is prohibited from retaliating against workers for exercising their rights described in paragraph (6).

H-01 Human Oversight of Automated Decisions · H-01.3 · Deployer · EmploymentAutomated Decisionmaking

Lab. Code § 1522(d)

Plain Language

When an employer uses an ADS to make hiring decisions for a particular position, the employer must notify each job applicant upon receipt of their application. This is a simpler notice than the pre-use worker notice — it may be delivered via an automatic reply mechanism or included in the job posting itself. Unlike the worker notice, no specific content requirements are enumerated; the employer must simply inform the applicant that an ADS is used in hiring decisions for that position.

Statutory Text

(d) An employer shall notify a job applicant upon receiving the application that the employer utilizes an ADS when making hiring decisions, if the employer will use the ADS in making decisions for that position. Notifications may be made using an automatic reply mechanism or on a job posting.

S-02 Prohibited Conduct & Output Restrictions · Deployer · EmploymentAutomated Decisionmaking

Lab. Code § 1524(a)

Plain Language

Employers are categorically prohibited from using an ADS in three ways: (1) to prevent compliance with or violate any existing labor, occupational health and safety, employment, or civil rights law; (2) to infer a worker's protected characteristics under FEHA (Section 12940 of the Government Code); or (3) to identify, profile, predict, or take adverse action against workers for exercising their legal rights under employment and labor law. These are outright prohibitions — no safe harbor, cure period, or compliance program can excuse a violation.

Statutory Text

(a) An employer shall not use an ADS to do any of the following: (1) Prevent compliance with or violate any federal, state, or local labor, occupational health and safety, employment, or civil rights laws or regulations. (2) Infer a worker's protected status under Section 12940 of the Government Code. (3) Identify, profile, predict, or take adverse action against a worker for exercising their legal rights, including, but not limited to, rights guaranteed by state and federal employment and labor law.

D-01 Automated Processing Rights & Data Controls · D-01.4 · Deployer · EmploymentAutomated Decisionmaking

Lab. Code § 1524(b)

Plain Language

Employers may not use an ADS to collect worker data for any purpose beyond what was disclosed in the pre-use notice required under Section 1522. This operates as a purpose limitation requirement — the scope of permissible data collection by the ADS is bounded by what the employer affirmatively disclosed to workers. Any undisclosed data collection constitutes a separate violation.

Statutory Text

(b) An employer shall not use an ADS to collect worker data for a purpose that is not disclosed pursuant to the notice requirements in Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 1522).

H-01 Human Oversight of Automated Decisions · H-01.6 · Deployer · EmploymentAutomated Decisionmaking

Lab. Code § 1524(c)

Plain Language

Employers face a two-tier restriction on ADS use in discipline, termination, and deactivation decisions. First, an employer may never rely solely on an ADS for such decisions — there must always be a human in the loop. Second, when the ADS output is the primary basis for the decision, a human reviewer must affirmatively review the ADS output and also compile and review other relevant information (supervisory evaluations, personnel files, work product, peer reviews, witness interviews). The human reviewer must have actual supplementary information to consider — not merely rubber-stamp the ADS output.

Statutory Text

(c) (1) An employer shall not rely solely on an ADS when making a discipline, termination, or deactivation decision. (2) When an employer relies primarily on ADS output to make a discipline, termination, or deactivation decision, the employer shall use a human reviewer to review the ADS output and compile and review other information that is relevant to the decision, if any. For purposes of this paragraph, "other information" may include, but is not limited to, any of the following: (A) Supervisory or managerial evaluations. (B) Personnel files. (C) Work product of workers. (D) Peer reviews. (E) Witness interviews, that may include relevant online customer reviews.

Other · EmploymentAutomated Decisionmaking

Lab. Code § 1524(d)

Plain Language

Employers may not use customer ratings as the sole or primary data input feeding an ADS that makes employment-related decisions. Customer ratings may still be one of several inputs, but they cannot dominate the ADS's decision logic. This targets gig economy and platform work models where customer star ratings may be the principal data source driving algorithmic employment actions.

Statutory Text

(d) An employer shall not use customer ratings as the only or primary input data for an ADS to make employment-related decisions.

D-01 Automated Processing Rights & Data Controls · D-01.1 D-01.2 · Deployer · EmploymentAutomated Decisionmaking

Lab. Code § 1524(e)-(f)

Plain Language

Workers have the right to request a copy of their own data that was primarily used by an ADS in making discipline, termination, or deactivation decisions, covering the most recent 12 months. This right is limited to one request per 12-month period. When providing the data, employers must anonymize any personal information belonging to customers, other workers, or other individuals — the worker receives only their own data, with third-party identifiers removed. This is a post-decision data access right, distinct from the pre-use notice about data categories.

Statutory Text

(e) A worker shall have the right to request, and an employer shall provide, a copy of the most recent 12 months of the worker's own data primarily used by an ADS to make a discipline, termination, or deactivation decision. A worker is limited to one request every 12 months for a copy of their own data used by an ADS to make a discipline, termination, or deactivation decision. (f) For purposes of safeguarding the privacy rights of consumers, workers, and individuals, when an employer is required to provide worker data pursuant to this part, that worker data shall be provided in a manner that anonymizes the customer's, other worker's, or individual's personal information.

H-01 Human Oversight of Automated Decisions · H-01.1 H-01.3 · Deployer · EmploymentAutomated Decisionmaking

Lab. Code § 1526(a)-(b)

Plain Language

When an employer primarily relied on an ADS to make a discipline, termination, or deactivation decision, it must provide the affected worker with a post-decision written notice at the time the worker is informed of the decision. The notice must be plain-language, stand-alone, in the worker's routine communication language, and must identify: a human contact for further information, the fact that an ADS was used, the worker's right to request their data, and the prohibition on retaliation. This is a post-action notice obligation — distinct from the pre-deployment notice under Section 1522.

Statutory Text

(a) An employer that primarily relied on an ADS to make a discipline, termination, or deactivation decision shall provide the affected worker with a written notice at the time the employer informs the worker of the decision. The notice shall be all of the following: (1) Written in plain language as a separate, stand-alone communication. (2) In the language in which routine communications and other information are provided to workers. (3) Provided via a simple and easy-to-use method, including an email, hyperlink, or other written format. (b) A notice issued pursuant to subdivision (a) shall contain all of the following information: (1) The human to contact for more information about the decision and the ability to request a copy of the worker's own worker data relied on in the decision. (2) That the employer used an ADS to assist the employer in one or more discipline, termination, or deactivation decisions with respect to the worker. (3) That the worker has the right to request a copy of the worker's data used by the ADS. (4) That the employer is prohibited from retaliating against the worker for exercising their rights under this part.

G-03 Whistleblower & Anti-Retaliation Protections · G-03.3 · Deployer · EmploymentAutomated Decisionmaking

Lab. Code § 1530

Plain Language

Employers are prohibited from retaliating against any worker for exercising their rights under this part — including using data access rights, filing complaints with the Labor Commissioner, alleging violations, cooperating in investigations, or taking any action to invoke enforcement. The anti-retaliation protection covers attempted exercise of rights as well as actual exercise, and extends to any form of adverse action including discharge, threats, demotion, suspension, or discrimination.

Statutory Text

An employer shall not discharge, threaten to discharge, demote, suspend, or in any manner discriminate or retaliate against any worker for using or attempting to use their rights under this part, filing a complaint with the Labor Commissioner, alleging a violation of this part, cooperating in an investigation or prosecution of an alleged violation of this part, or any action taken by the worker to invoke or assist in any manner the enforcement of this part, or for exercising or attempting to exercise any right protected under this part.

Other · EmploymentAutomated Decisionmaking

Lab. Code §§ 1536-1537

Plain Language

Compliance with this part's notice requirements preempts substantially similar ADS notice provisions under other state laws — employers need not provide duplicative notices. However, employers subject to the CCPA remain fully subject to any privacy-related automated decisionmaking technology regulations adopted by the California Privacy Protection Agency. This means CPPA's ADT regulations, if and when finalized, apply independently regardless of compliance with this part.

Statutory Text

Except as set forth in Section 1537, an employer who complies with the requirements related to notice under this part is not required to comply with any substantially similar notice provisions related to automated decision systems used for employment-related decisions required under any other state law. Notwithstanding Section 1536, an employer that is a business subject to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (Title 1.81.5 (commencing with Section 1798.100) of Part 4 of Division 3 of the Civil Code) is subject to any privacy-related automated decisionmaking technology regulation duly adopted by the California Privacy Protection Agency pursuant to Section 1798.185 and subdivision (b) of Section 1798.199.40 of the Civil Code.

Other · EmploymentAutomated Decisionmaking

Lab. Code § 1538

Plain Language

This part does not apply to workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement that meets three conditions: (1) explicit waiver of this part in clear and unambiguous terms, (2) express provisions for wages, working conditions, and other terms of work, and (3) protections from algorithmic management. All three conditions must be met — a CBA that merely waives this part without including algorithmic management protections would not qualify.

Statutory Text

The provisions of this part shall not apply to parties covered by a collective bargaining agreement if the agreement explicitly waives this part in clear and unambiguous terms, expressly provides for the wages or earning, working conditions, and other terms and conditions of work, and provides protection from algorithmic management.

Other · EmploymentAutomated Decisionmaking

Lab. Code § 1539

Plain Language

Employers providing products or services to the federal government may comply with federal regulatory or contractual requirements even if doing so would otherwise conflict with this part. This is a narrow carve-out — it does not exempt federal contractors from this part generally, but ensures that compliance with federal obligations is not treated as a violation of this part.

Statutory Text

This part does not prohibit any employer from complying with regulatory or contractual requirements in the provision of products or services to the federal government.